The Black Shroud
The is a massive force of traitors, heretics, and mutants, rapidly expanding in the wake of the Noctis Aeterna and the following opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Possessing a level of drive and determination that isn't seen in many Chaos warbands, the Black Shroud have expanded to dominate most of the Geminax Sector, and is now rapidly expanding into the Aurenis Sector, killing or enslaving all in their way. Their understanding of Imperial tactics and doctrine have allowed them to out manoeuvre the Imperium on several fields, and the charisma of their leaders often allow them to absorb those they defeat, swelling their ranks ever further. At this time, they represent a severe threat to the imperilled Imperium, and nothing short of a fully mobilised Crusade can stand in their way. History Territory Kytal Medas: Dark Capital of the Black Shroud, is is shrouded from view by a warp storm, making it difficult to detect. Its on this dark world that their shadowy Overlord rules. Thousands of slaves are reaped by the Shroud each day, and brought there to serve and die at the Shroud's demand. Massive gene-labs hastily produce enhanced monsters, and Chaos Astartes, and occult temples where diabolic monsters are produced or summoned. The path is only known to a select few navigators, and is otherwise almost impossible to find. Damnation: Originally Damikos, the sector capital, when the Noctis Aeterna struck, the Shroud overran Damikos in a violent seven day campaign. Though extensively damaged, its is used as an important staging ground, with millions of slaves, vast reserves of armaments, and factories ready to churn out war materiel for them. From here, they strike out, cutting further and further into the sector until it fell. Port Poxin: A Imperial Navy port, the Nurglite forces struck it in the early stages of their attack. The ships were plagued by Gellerpox outbreaks, and factories plagued by glitchlings, and diseases, parasites, and viruses plaguing the defenders. This made it easy prey, and was conquered with much of it's fleet incapacitated and it's defenders. Now the ships fight for the Shroud, and the hopelessly diseased inhabitants slaving in the shipyards and refineries. The great spires of the Port are now disease vectors, spewing filth and disease into the atmosphere and making it uninhabitable. Chorilyp: Whereas Port Poxin was too valuable to allow the Rot Knights to run wild, but Chorilyp was to be their playground. On this agriworld, they were allowed slaneeshi world tzeentch world khornate world civilised world hive world hive world forge world forge world knight world cardinal world shrine world Culture Combat Doctrine Organisation War Shrouds The War Shrouds seem to form the main bulk of their Astartes forces, and represent a core of hardened warriors. Some are new recruits created from harvested geneseed, others are new converts, while others are experienced veterans of the Long War. They are arranged into self-sufficient warbands of 300-400 warriors, with their own command, elites, and vehicles. While individually, they're a fearsome force, when mustered into larger numbers their capable of conquering whole systems. While they possess a number of daemonic engines, and some formations of possessed, they do not include any worshippers of one individual Chaos God, instead giving them over to another faction to bolster their strength. Their nominal strength stands at 23 warbands Blood Bound When a warrior of the Shroud gives himself over to worship of the Blood God, he swears himself to the Blood Bound. Khornate berserkers, all, they are used as a brute force weapon to break the enemy in a storm of blood and violence. Heedles of personal safety, or injury, they sweep over any and all enemies, collecting a fine tithe of skulls for Khorne. The Blood Bound are more often deployed in smaller supporting cadres for larger forces, providing a keen and terrible edge to any attack. They currently stand at 6 warbands, though most are swollen to large sizes. Rot Knights Devoted to the worship of Nurgle, the Rot Knights are the Black Shroud's collected worshippers of the god of diseases. Bloated, mutated, and tormented by his gifts, they also gain great boons, becoming resistant and deadened to pain, and spread Nurgle's gifts to all others. They are sometimes used in smaller cadres amongst larger Shroud forces, but have a strong degree of autonomy, furthering the Shroud's goals. As well as taking to the field, they conduct operations against the Black Shroud's enemies through other channels, afflicting them with great and terrible biological and chemical weapons. Their virulent plagues often spearhead assaults, or weaken foes into surrender. Their strength is 14 warbands Marquee of Flesh As a warrior of the Shroud continues to wage war, he may find pleasure in his enemy's suffering, and find he can no longer attain any high or desire outside of that suffering. As Slaanesh draws him closer, he is reassigned to the Marquee of Flesh. Devotees of Slaanesh, They bring their murderous sadism with them to the field, often accompanied by howls of augmented sonic screams. Difficult to control or corral, they are best left to their own devices, on the promise they bring back a tithe of slaves to the Shroud, and produce weapons of war. Their stimulants, made from rendered down flesh of their enemies, are particularly beloved, enhancing combat performance. Their strength is 11 warbands Exalted Watchers Those that decide to reveal in the great mysteries of Tzeentch find themselves drawn to the Exalted Watchers. They further the Shroud's goals through deception, subterfuge, and warp-enhanced sorcery, and where they go, the local populace often fall to uncontrollable mutation. Implacable, and calculating, they are often involved in the highest levels of planning, and their strikes are against key targets intended to weaken the enemy to the Shroud's follow up assaults. Mutations and sorcery are rife amongst these units. They stand at 6 warbands. Drakon Wrathbringers Initially believed to be an independent warband, the Drakon Wrathbringers are lead by the Daemon Prince Salamanker. Highly mobile, they are prone to falling into worship of Khorne, resulting in a warband that hits hard, and without mercy. Despite their numbers of berserkers, the warband is extremely patient and calculating, and exists largely to fulfil Salamanker's personal wishes. It is unknown how he gained such autonomy within the Shroud, but what is known is that with his death, their numbers were folded into other Shroud forces, almost seamlessly. Their strength was originally 4 warbands, but they have been dissolved. The Dread Vigil The Dread Vigil stand above all others, and answer only to the mysterious Overlord who commands the Shroud. Largely made up of veterans, both in and out of terminator armour, the appearance of the Dread Vigil is usually followed by utter defeat and annihilation. Their experience and equipment is teamed with merciless violence, often bordering on the obscene, as their carve their way through enemies, usually to enact missions to further the Overlord's goal, or to surgically dismantle an enemy. Some small units are distributed amongst the forces of the Shroud, functioning as political officers to ensure Warlords maintain loyalty. They stand only one warband strong, but are largely made up of Dreadnoughts, and Chosen, many in Terminator armour. Shroud Guard A disgusting corruption of the Imperial Guard, the Shroud Guard are an innumerable force of Traitor Guard that serves the Shroud. The Shroud Guard function as invading army, garrison, and auxiliaries for the Shroud's Astartes forces. Arranged into regiments, they are equipped in a largely uniform manner, and have a variety of armoured vehicles, and aerial support, including Leman Russ battle tanks, Chimera transports, Valkyries, and even super heavy vehicles. Taking to the field, they fight with lasgun, bayonet, and sword, and are accompanied by possessed mutants, and sorcerers who summon daemons through fell ritual. The Guard stood at 450 Regiments strong, with 1000 troops in each Regiment. The Fell Horde Whereas the Shroud Guard are a well organised formation of soldiers, the Fell Horde are anything but. A massive conglomeration of cultists, mutants, beastmen, and other filth, they are a slavering horde devoted to violence in the name of their Lords and Gods. They follow their masters into battle, picking on the scraps, or being driven ahead to absorb fire, and expend their lives in diversions or suicide attacks. Such things matter little to the Fell Horde, as service to the Dark Gods is their only desire. Often cultists that accompany Astartes forces take on their worship, falling to their patron god. The cultists have another use to them, as infiltrators on Imperial worlds, meant to corrode and poison them from the inside, before the bulk of the Shroud strike the final blow. It is unknown exactly how large the Horde was, but estimates usually agree at around 110 million Shroud Fleet While each Astartes element of the Shroud carry their own fleet elements, the Shroud has a large fleet, including a mixture of defected Imperial vessels, pirates, and ancient Chaos warships. The Shroud Fleet can act as invasion fleet, defence monitors, pirates, or everything in-between. They often accompany Traitor Astartes invasion forces, adding additional firepower, or act as a defensive force. The fleet consisted of around two dozen cruiser squadrons, and twice as many escorts. Vexana Cult The Dark Mechanicum cult based on the corrupted Forge World of Vexis, and serves the the Shroud by providing ammunition, armour, weapons, vehicles, and corrupted Skitarii. While they are afforded some autonomy, they are utterly reliant on the larger Shroud, who commands their influx of resources and slaves. The Vexana Cult have all the technology and artefacts of the Cult Mechanicus at large, with augmented Skitarii legions, and exotic vehicles, but these have been augmented with the forces of Chaos, with daemonic war machines, Skitarii-daemon hybrids, and all kinds of sickening creations that feed or mortal flesh and souls. The Vexana provide the war machines for the whole Shroud. The Cult can muster a sizeable strength, with two Skitarii Legions, and three Battle Congregations. Legio Sepulcrum The Tomb Shrouds are the Titan Legion of Vexis, and serve the Shroud in war, augmenting their strength on the field. Swollen with Titans stolen from fallen legions, and augmented with hellish Heretek, or wholly commanded by daemons, these Chaos titans are a frightening prospect on the field. In some cases, the treacherous crew, or the daemon embedded within, have given the machine over to a patron dark god, resulting in Nurglite machines dripping with puss, Tzeentch machines wreathed in ethereal flames, Slaaneshi war machines that scream loud enough to shatter bones and liquefy organs, and Khornate monsters that lap at the blood they willingly spill. House Ferraxis Greatest of the Knight Houses that serves the Shroud, their leader is of the few who knows of the Overlord. They curry favour with him by leading great conquests, slaughtering their foes without mercy, or care. Cruel in battle, they adorn themselves in the blood, bones, and viscera of the fallen, and engage in wanton slaughter. Many fall to Khorne, with berserker Knights cutting deep into the enemy's position before running out of steam, or being crippled. When they do capture a world, their new slaves are made to fight in great and spectacular gladiator matches, the winners being given the honour as serving in their Warhounds, or as thrall-soldiers. House Kolbani An Infernal Knight House beholden to the Vexana Cult, they operate twisted war machines provided to them by the Dark Mechanicum. Each machine is a treasured gift, and as a result they mostly operate ranged combat, or in short bursts of calculated violence. They reveal in capturing Nobles, and bringing them to their masters to be corrupted, resulting in their numbers constantly remaining high. They have, on occasion, given their machines over to be daemonically enhanced, at the cost of the pilot, creating a powerful, if unpredictable war machine. House Noximore An Iconoclast House, their fall to Chaos began when they dared to fight the Rot Knights. As they battled, the plague munitions, and miasma of death that surrounded them, seeped into machines, and their Noble pilots. At first, they came down with a pox, being fatigued and ill, then their machines began to intermittently respond, and on the final day, both the pilots and their machines were consumed by a virulent disease, their bodies swelling, and bursting into torrents of bloody pus, before healing and starting all over. Praying to the Emperor for release, their prayers went unanswered. That is when Nurgle stepped in, and gave them relief, but only at his behest. Their symptoms would abate, if they spread their plague to others. And so, they became sworn to the Rot Knights, and by extension, the Shroud. They wander battlefield, belching swarms of parasitic flies, virulent diseases, and other foulness, while their munitions explode into clouds of corrosive acid and flesh eating bacteria. Shroud Witches The conquest of the Entelchia cluster lead to the control of a Cardinal World, and several Shrine Worlds, and with that came the conquest of two minor Adeptus Sororitas Orders. Such Sisters were corrupted, willingly or unwillingly, during the conquest, and others were captured, in preparation for the Shroud's corruptive influence. Tortured and mutilated, and utterly broken, what emerged after that was the Shroud Witches. They possess all the religious fervour they once did, but twisted into belief of the Dark Gods, charging in to conduct bloody and terrible slaughter in their name. Daemonic possession, witch craft, daemonancy, and other heresies are rife in their forces. They serve as terror troops, and occupying forces, converting populaces to worship of the Dark Gods. 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